Katawa Shoujo Forums

*cough* Clannad. *cough*

You can't say you've played a good bit of VNs until you've played Clannad. Aside from that, though, I don't really have any ideas. I hear Planetarian is practically 100% tearjerker with great plot and character development, but don't recall whether that one was translated.

Sharin no Kuni.

No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No.

Ever17 is an unforgettable vn for me, I'd recommend it to any vn player... but keep in mind it has its share of action and supernatural scenes.

Another one that (imo) is not so well known is Family Project, its EXTREMELY long, so if you took about 10 hours for one KS route, this would take you 3-4 days to finish one... also, its full of choices. But in the end, its worth it and was a tear-jerker in some of its endings.

There is also a free vn (forgot its name, hopefully someone can remember it) which involves the protagonist, an aspiring musician/saxophonist(?), to have an accident and lose an arm. And so the story starts from there... its pretty much a reverse katawa shoujo.

Family Project and Clannad of course. And another on that I found so good and strong that I can't play it anymore is Yume Miru Kusuri - A Drug That Makes You Dream. It is so strong and have heartbreaking stories about how society can affect the three girls of this VN. I recommend it since it is strong, maybe a little too much sometimes but god I have cried so much manly tears playing this game. Definitly worth the try.

Almost anything by Key (who made Clannad). Kanon and Clannad have English patches out there. Not sure if AIR has one but if it has or if you can read Japanese then by all means go for it. Planetarian is also amazing and Little Busters! has some routes translated (it's a massive game so they're still working on it).

Clannad, Little Busters! and Planetarian are non-H, but Kanon and AIR do have H and ... yeah, Key isn't renowned for its ero whether it's fitting it into the story or making it erotic. They re-made Little Busters! the year after it was released into an adult version, although they also improved some other bits - worth playing for the extra routes, Saya Tokido and general improvement, but this isn't translated as of yet. If it turns out that you like Little Busters, there's also a sequel to one of the girls' routes called Kud Wafter but I've heard nothing on how good it is.

In Clannad, if you find that you're a Tomoyo fan there's a sequel to her route called Tomoyo After: It's a Wonderful Life. The first edition was H to make up for the fact that Clannad hadn't got ero in it and never would have (and squished the vast majority of hentai scenes in the first two hours or so ... didn't do shit for the actual story and they were pretty awkward to read) but all subsequent editions had the ero taken out. It's a bit of a tearjerker so that might be worth playing.

Another Clannad-related one is The Past Path, which was a fanmade game exploring the school days of Tomoyo's father Naoyuki. There are only two romanceable options and the One True Girl is made very clearly to you, but it was very well made.

Just double-checked it, the free vn I forgot to mention is called brass restoration:

http://mirrormoon.org/projects/brass_restoration

Type-Moon works are rather well known. Perhaps you would want to try them. They currently have 4 visual novel works with 1 underway.
All their visual novels' heroine routes must be played in a particular order. This is because each subsequent route reveals more of the story (e.g. the main character's past).
I should warn you that aside from the H-scenes, Type-Moon also has a way of making battle scenes rather extreme, which I think makes for a very interesting read.
Type-Moon also tends to each heroine 2 endings; a true end and a good end (usually).

Tsukihime, which has 5 heroines and the main character has rather interesting ways of killing. It is fairly simple to complete and each route is rather short. Almost as long as a route in KS (in my view). Mirror-Moon has produced an English patch.

Kagetsu Tohya, the sequel to Tsukihime. The gameplay is ridiculously complex, and it is quite possible to miss the H-scenes. You can also unlock some side stories, most of which are funny, especially when you've played Tsukihime. An English patch was released, but now you would have a hard time finding it.

Melty Blood, which is another sequel, but this a fusion of arcade fighting (like Street Fighter) with visual novel. You can tone down the difficulty though. Also has a Mirror-Moon release. No H-scenes and you cannot configure the keyboard controls.

Fate/Stay Night. Has 3 heroines and a very in depth story. Very good battles and also comes with full (Japanese) voice-acting. I recommend this one if you like fantasy battles. Also has a Mirror-Moon release.

Fate/Hollow Ataraxia, the sequel to FSN. Partial release, but not by Mirror-Moon. Don't know much about it.

The Witch of the Holy Night. Type-Moon's upcoming visual novel.

Also, it is worthwhile to check out all of Type-Moon's animations. They like to make a lot of references to their works, or include characters from other works.

I do agree that it is good to browse vnbd.org though.

No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No.

Probably the most similar one to Katawa Shoujo that springs to mind is Crescendo. It portrays school life but not in the usual VN/anime way of "Oh onii-san, I made you a bentou with rabu!! ^___^" and the relationships and sex scenes feel a lot more realistic that average VN. Essentially, you get the feeling that it's portraying actual young adults rather than anime characters. There's one called Sekien no Inganock which has a really strong and unique atmosphere, set in a dystopian Steampunk future. It has a few sequels but only the first one is translated, Shikkoku no Sharnoth. Both of those games are some of the most atmospheric and unique experiences you can have with a VN, and a world away from the usual VN which just tries to be the usual moe slice of life thing. Another fantastic game that actually starts out in a school but ends up with dimensional travel as you try and find out if your father is still alive, and an apparently absolutely amazing story is YU-NO. It's an old classic that's only recently been translated. It's also notable for having actual gameplay, like a point-and-click adventure game, rather than just being text with the occasional choice.

A couple that I'm really looking forward to the complete translation for are Ayakashibito and Steins;Gate. The first one is set in an alternate history, just after the end of WW2 in a Japan that has demons living alongside humans. You are the offspring of a human and a demon sent to a special island due to exhibiting powerful abilities. Steins;Gate is pretty famous since it just had a really good anime series based on it. If you don't already know, it's all about time travel and parallel timelines diverging and, if I'm correct, converging again. There's no hentai at all in it, either, if that appeals to you. To copy a part of the synopsis from VNDB; "The story of Steins;Gate takes place in Akihabara and is about a group of friends who have customized their microwave into a device that can send text messages to the past." In all cases, you can find the translation sites linked to on the VNDB articles I've linked you to.

The 'What a Beautiful...' series - Sekien no Iganock amongst them, is amazing. Mind, I've only played Sekien no Iganock, but it's like a fairy tale, the original sort.
Steins;Gate is amazing, simply amazing. The prequel, Chaos;Head is also awesome if you don't mind gore (more horrifically, gore implied in text) and self-defeating protagonists. It's a pretty good deconstruction of some things, too. I want to also recommend Song of Saya, but feel like I'm kind of dragging this thread in a corrupted direction, heh.

Games similar to this, though... To be honest, I haven't played a game that makes me feel similar to this. Katawa Shoujo is one of a kind to me. But research the suggestions here; maybe you'll find something you like, or even something unexpected and yet good in a completely different way?

Thanks Teclo for mentioning Crescendo... its a great vn thats worth a try, even though its quite long for my standards

hmmm...

I'm not quite sure if it has been mentioned yet however one visual novel not to be forgotten would be;

"True Rememberance"

If you felt that Katawa Shoujo was "Your Thing" and beautiful in itself than I believe True Rememberance would also appeal to you.

I also recommend True Remembrance. It is a beautiful story, though it's a static novel (no choices).
For me, the only VN on par with KS is Ever 17. You can't really compare the two though; they're too different...

Amagami SS
also has an anime series that is well done in that it makes each girl an arc in the series so it doesn't leave you wondering who the character will end up with as canon.